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Sole Au Gratin

A baked sole fillet topped with mushrooms, Duxelle sauce, Parmesan, breadcrumbs, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Sole Au Gratin

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Partly separate the fillets from the bones on the upper side of the fish.

  2. Season the fillets with salt, pepper, and a little butter.

  3. Place the sole in a well-buttered gratin dish.

Layer and gratin

  1. Sprinkle a pinch of parsley and 1–2 tablespoons of Duxelle sauce on the bottom of the dish.

  2. Place six cooked mushrooms on the sole.

  3. Surround the mushrooms with one to two raw mushrooms sliced thinly.

  4. Add two tablespoons of white wine.

  5. Cover the sole with Duxelle sauce.

  6. Sprinkle one tablespoon of Parmesan cheese and fine breadcrumbs over the dish.

  7. Drizzle melted butter over the top.

  8. Bake in the oven until gratin.

Finish and serve

  1. Sprinkle a few drops of lemon juice and a pinch of chopped parsley before serving.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Mushroom + white winetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  5. Mushroom + parmesan cheesetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,199 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (apple, fatty).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Sole fillets
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking up tender and flaky under the sauce.
Duxelle sauce
Adds a moist, savoury mushroom layer that keeps the fish from drying out.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the fish and top brown evenly in the gratin.
Parmesan cheese
Melts and browns on top, adding savoury flavour and a golden crust.
White wine
Adds acidity and moisture that steams the fish and carries flavour through the dish.

The step that matters

Bake in the oven until gratin. Fish cooks quickly and turns dry or rubbery if overbaked, while the top needs enough heat to brown. Watching for a golden top with flaky fish balances both.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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